#especially when the only novel i've read before this is a chinese translation of the fucking magic finger by roald dahl LMFAO
Text
randomly looked at this account to update my age and holy shit it's been a while since i posted here..........i have a small pile of art i have yet to post but hbhbshdbshbd too lazy
#part of it is that i haven't posted any of my recent art but in addition#i haven't made new art in a WHILE (abt 3 months) which is highly unusual for me but the reason for that is#3 months ago i suddenly remembered that i tried learning mandarin for three (3) days before forgetting about it for 9 months#(amusingly the reason why is not because of danmei......i did not even know danmei existed when i first decided to learn it)#anyways i have been insanely fixated on learning it for the past 3 months#however since art is primarily a way for me to process my interests and that only really be done when i'm fixated on media........well#let's just say i have not been making art at all#that might change soon tho#rn i'm reading 撒野 (saye) in chinese bc it's at a level i can read and i fucking love it so far#idk why i picked a book longer than svsss (which took me a week to read in english)...u would think there's no chance of me finishing it#or even reading it#especially when the only novel i've read before this is a chinese translation of the fucking magic finger by roald dahl LMFAO#but it's been a week and i'm a fifth of the way into it which i was not expecting at all#it was initially an exercise of “i will get as far as i can and try my best to read a chapter a day” but i've been zipping through chapters#last night i was up until 3 AM reading it and i was so tempted to read more but had to stop myself#of course this is all aided by pleco which lets me quickly look up words that i don't know yet. pleco ily#that being said...this all does mean i know words like 收銀台 before i even know the word for “orange” (the color) which is pretty funny#but idk considering that the sum of my time spent learning chinese is just 3 months..........i think i am doing pretty damn good#i thought it would be a LOT longer before i could finally start enjoying some interesting things#god but it really has been a while since i last read a high school romance...but i am quite fond of the leads and their respective baggage#sorry for the whole tag ramble.........i haven't really had anyone to talk abt this stuff with#oh also it's my birthday#that is why i am even here to update my age in the first place#happy lan wangji birthday#actually the only reason i realized it was gonna be my birthday soon is because i saw chinese artists posting lan wangji birthday fanart#and then remembered that we share the same birthday#also re: the art i haven't posted yet.........a good chunk of it is misvil fanart...song qingshi my beloved#and there's also a luo binghe drawn on an art app i PROGRAMMED MYSELF (!!!!!!!!!) in there#actually that piece is the main reason i haven't posted the art i HAVE made. how the fuck do i explain that i drew it on an app that i made#sorry this is genuinely the most off the rails tag ramble i've ever done. okay i'm done
5 notes
·
View notes
Note
What are some themes in Jiang Cheng fan works that you especially enjoy?
I’m super sorry for how long it’s taken me to reply to you but you caught me during Eid week which was insanely chaotic 🤣 this got kinda long so i'm popping it under the cut :D
Violent and self sacrificial love: you cannot have JC without his all encompassing love, and it’s one of the things that makes him such an interesting character. There are few things that make JC act irrationally, and his loved ones are a very major one!! It’s such a fun thing to play with - I love characters that love with their whole self and stories that focus on the consequences of that!!!
Responsibility, duty, tradition: okay this is like many different things rolled into one rather niche dot point so bear with me. I LOVE that JC is a character who takes his responsibilities seriously!! He is dutiful and he does his best to put the sect before all else, and you have no idea how hard it is to find that in fantasy that I’m used to (Western YA and NA fantasy lmao). I really love fics that have that theme of sacrificing for duty and eventually reaping the benefits of that (the sect being so loyal to JC in return, the sect flourishing, the love that JL has for JC), but also fics that look at JC upholding YMJ traditions when he’s one of the few who remember them, or having to adjust traditions/make new ones because of that reason. And as I’m typing this out I’m realising there’s… probably a reason… for me enjoying seeing cultural traditions needing to be adjusted because you don’t have much family or the same resources around and things are very different from how your parents would’ve celebrated those same traditions, and needing to make those who are around your family now… Anyway, it’s just insanely cathartic to see certain cultural values and themes across so many fanworks. I've thought about this particular element to the point where I realised the other month that there’s a whole world outside of Western fantasy novels that likely do have these themes that are so fucking hard to find in Western novels, so I’m trying out other Chinese novels, i dipped into Japanese books, and I got my cousin to recommend me Bangla fantasy novels because I realised I’ve never considered how fantasy themes would be in my own culture 😔✊ (it's funny timing bc my dad arrived literally a couple hrs ago with the books, and my reading ability is decent for someone who's never needed to read Bangla but I'm gonna have to sit down with either google translate or a dictionary bc I'm so used to my parents translating harder words or getting us to read books for younger kids,, i'm like which words here are made-up fantasy words and which are real 💀😭)
Grief: grief has quite literally shaped this guy, and it’s so cool to see different fics have different takes on how it’s affected him as a person. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a fandom where grief has been such a huge theme and it’s very fun to see the fandom leaning into it. (I also need to given honorary shoutouts to disillusionment, guilt, loneliness, and repression!! I think a lot of these are especially interesting in combo with how much JC values responsibility and duty, and fics that study them are so chefs kiss.)
Turning Into His Mother: I’m so obsessed with this theme. I think it’s mostly because YZY is so mum coded for me and there are aspects of my own mother that I see in her so strongly that any time fic gives her and JC’s relationship the depth it deserves, I’m standing there chomping on wood. I especially love it when JC’s journey has elements of “I can’t be like my mother bc everyone says that’s bad” -> “I should act like my father, because he’s the only example I have of a sect leader” -> “am I difficult to love like my mother was?” -> “the best way to protect those I love is through the things my mother taught me” -> “the only parent whose love I genuinely felt was my mother’s so when I’m displaying love to a child, I should use the most successful method I know” -> “I am like my mother; maybe that’s a good thing”. It’s rare that I get to sink my teeth into a character who had such a complex relationship with his mother, so any fics with this theme automatically make me go insane. (Something here as well about JC written in fics as a woman scorned, JC with ruined woman vibes who’d been promised by WWX that he’d always be by his side and now isn’t and without any good reason that JC is aware of, something about fics that project feminine rage onto him in a way that feels freeing and safe because he’s a male character so it’s like you can almost examine it without having to examine sexism and gender roles…)
Aroace and queer themes: aro!JC!! ace!JC!! Never before have I been into a character I can project onto so fully, but also see other people projecting onto?? This fandom has so many gorgeous aroace!JC fanworks, and we get so much variety from ppls experiences!! there’s something extremely fulfilling about fics with a main character who doesn’t feel conventional romantic/sexual love, and is still very successful and has a full life with loved ones and is satisfied with life. There's also this tiny niche of fics involving JC in queerplatonic relationships, and any time I read those I would literally have to lie there for an hour contemplating my life. I think the other fun thing about this is that there's a pretty big chunk of the fandom that characterises JC as the kind of acesexual who thinks all his allo friends are absolute weirdos for how they're behaving, and it's such a funny and refreshing (and extremely relatable) take.
Whump: last but definitely not least, JC being whumped within an inch of his life 😌 I love this fandom deciding that the most efficient way to get JC to show emotions is to shove some knives in him and get him all bloodied up. The one gore/torture fic that genuinely icked me out to the point where I had to stop reading for a moment was a delightful post canon JC fic that I revisit every few months because it just scratches that whump itch so well 👏
I’m sure the moment I post this I’ll be hit by like fifty other things I forgot to put in here, but for now I’m blanking. thank youu for giving me an excuse to think about JC 🫶🫶🫶
#asks#you know that post that's like 'my mutuals would be able to diagnose me based on my blorbos'? yea something about finding the themes i enjo#in JC fics. and realising how similar a lot of them are with blorbos i gravitate towards in other media. hrm
15 notes
·
View notes
Note
23, 34, 49
23: Favorite blog in your target language(s)?
i really like @liu-anhuaming and @zhuzhudushu 's blogs! there's tons of other great blogs though, these are just the ones i can think of at the moment :)
34: How has learning languages impacted your life?
yeah! my uni studies are directly due to my interest in languages! in the past, i thought i'd go to uni for business, since i thought that would be the most financially sensible thing to do (you can get high paying jobs fairly early on), but then i realised that a lot of the languages i speak or want to study are considered critical languages by the government, which means there's a number of fairly sizeable scholarships for them—which is great for me, because it means i can basically entirely focus on the things i'm actually passionate about! studying chinese in particular has really impacted my life because i used to feel really depressed about the fact that i could feel myself losing proficiency even thought i grew up speaking it as a native language, so being able not to only halt that, but actually improve in my reading and writing beyond what i was able to learn as a kid has been really personally empowering and affirming for me. also, it's opened up a lot of opportunities for me! i'm part of a federal programme that means i get personal tutoring and will spend my final year of undergrad studying and living in china, like i've wanted to for years, and my improving chinese has allowed me to read a bunch of webnovels that i'm really enjoying that i couldn't before due to a lack of translations (the lack of translations for chinese gl novels is absolutely criminal, especially when there's so many fascinating concepts! i get that they're not as profitable as chinese bl, but still.....)
49: Do you have any language pet peeves?
i typed up a whole paragraph here before i realised i don't want discourse on this blog lol. the tl;dr is my biggest pet peeve is (usually english native) monolinguals getting offended about people making the "wrong" suggestions for language learning because it's not how they, personally, are learning a language. also, more specific to chinese, when i was growing up my teachers would tell me to stop using erhua because it was uncultured (i picked it up from my friend's grandmother, who's a northerner). since i've grown up, i've made the conscious decision to start using erhua when i speak more regularly, though it does cause unintentional confusion for people sometimes because i otherwise have a shanghainese accent.
8 notes
·
View notes
Note
In a previous post you mentioned the "official" translation for the Daughter of Evil novel is garbage. Could you give me some examples of what the translators got wrong?
There is no official English translation of the Daughter of Evil novel, in scarequotes or otherwise. The translation I was referring to was a fan translation made in 2014 by a handful of individuals, only some of whom knew Japanese (and even then, not at a level that I would consider necessary for translating a full novel). At least one person who contributed to the translation admitted to copying and pasting a Chinese translation into Google Translate for the sections they worked on.
To give an overview, the translation has very poor quality control. There are large chunks of the novel that are roughly accurate (though they often read very awkwardly or nonsensically, especially as they kept a lot of the Japanese syntax), but there are also many instances where it deformed the meaning of a line beyond recognition, or outright wrote the exact opposite thing the line was saying. There is more than one scene where they just straight up left a line untranslated in Japanese. Don't get me wrong--the work was passable as an information resource so people could know what was in the novel, but it was never treated like just an information resource. It was treated and advertised to people as a standard translation of the novel, conveying the tone and intent of the text--and in that regard, it failed. Maybe I'm a snob when it comes to creative writing, but I can't even stand reading it for long. Mothy's writing was merely amateurish--this translation was atrocious.
My examples are under the read-more. The entire translation is riddled with errors, so I hope you'll forgive me if the list is a bit long. It is by no means comprehensive.
Line on the left in bold quoting from the old translation. Line on the right is quoting mine (not that mine is perfect but I guarantee you I at least could read Japanese when making it). In the interest of fairness, I'll admit that without a copy of the original Cloture, I can't be 100% certain what differences are a result of revisions on mothy's end or not. But I'm fairly confident that these ones I've selected are mistranslations.
"I’m beginning to worry about narrow-minded Asan, who seems to be looking at his past right now." -- "Beginning to worry for the timid man, I glanced his way."
"I heard strange rumors circulating among the chefs that the ingredients they got from the recent barn were unnatural." -- "I heard the cooks passing around a strange rumor. That apparently the food from our stores has been unusually light lately."
"What I’m proud of is the fact that one of the “Three Heroes”, Leonhart Avadonia, and some aristocrats who only know how to line their own pockets, are the outstanding personalities of the citizens in the first place." -- "I was very proud of my father. Leonhart Avadonia of “The Three Heroes” was different from the other, selfish nobles. He was a magnificent person, who thought of the people first and foremost."
"I really don’t understand what part of struggling with these kinds of liquids is good." -- "It is simply incomprehensible what you would find good about such a bitter juice."
"Oh, this isn’t how Riliane practices it."-- "Heh heh, that was just like something Riliane would say, wasn’t it?"
"She also said that it’s her first time to meet Germaine." -- "Germaine said that to me too, the first time we met"
"There is no plan, ah!" -- "That’s far too reckless!"
"Take advantage of the ones not yet killed before I escape" -- "I’m going to quickly escape while you’re unable to kill me"
"Since the day father was killed, I finally got the chance to taste wonderful tasting wine." -- "Since the day that Dad was killed, I hadn’t been able to enjoy the taste of wine."
"The child, can I really?" -- "Is she really on board with this?"
"Though the revolution was soon suppressed as Minis expected." -- "I had thought that the revolt would be immediately suppressed, but it seems that things didn’t go according to Minis’ expectations."
"Overconcentrated, make a ring around Chivality’s camp." -- "By gathering together into one single line, we would be able to make an opening in the knights’ group."
"And also, everything seems to have settled down, so you have to worry" -- "Don’t be so cautious. I have no intention of taking over Lucifenia."
(as a side note, this same group also did a translation of Wiegenlied, as well as (AFAIK) several of the evillious-sidestories translations).
25 notes
·
View notes
Note
Oh, yeah. Really the only downside to writing fics is when a character is vastly diff from you. Now I have to teach myself all these things that they would be knowledgeable in. Agreed, I feel like the androids could be committing all these crimes and get away with it, especially the more advance ones like Connor and Nines
A Court of Thorns and Roses? I’ve seen that title floating around. There is an artist I follow who mentioned it before but I don’t really know anything about it. Oh, I’ve read the Giver and the other books in the series. I had a friend who owned the books so I read them. I don’t really remember what happens in them since it’s been so long. The book is called Queer Transfigurations: Boys Love Media in Asia by James Welker. What I like about the book is that they have more than one voice (21 contributors specializing in different fields) to analyze the subject material. Tho I’m not sure how popular the book is so I don’t know if it’ll be in bookstores
Ok, I’ll just start with meatbun and mxtx novel carrds
Meat bun:
2ha - https://erhainfo.carrd.co/
Yuwu - https://stainsoffilth.carrd.co/#
Bab - https://babmeatbun.carrd.co/
MXTX
Tgcf - https://stanhualian.carrd.co/
Mdzs - https://stanwangxian.carrd.co/
Svsss- https://svsssmxtx.carrd.co/#
No worries about not knowing chinese! English is one of the more popular languages that they are translated into. Spanish? What words do you know in spanish??? I know spanish as well! It makes me happy when others know other languages even if it is just a couple words!!
Other works that I’ve enjoyed that should still have english translations up; I’ve added both the carrds and direct link to the english translations:
https://qi-weishang.carrd.co/ (https://chrysanthemumgarden.com/novel-tl/twf/ - direct link to the english translation)
https://dpubfttb.carrd.co/ (https://chrysanthemumgarden.com/novel-tl/dpubftb/ - direct link to the english translation)
https://misvil.carrd.co/# (https://chrysanthemumgarden.com/novel-tl/misvil/ - direct link to the english translation)
https://tihc.carrd.co/#about (two diff groups translated parts of the story so I don’t have a direct link to the english translations but you can find them in the link section of the carrd!)
Sorry, this response was so short. Idk why but lately I’ve been feeling so drained 🙃😭. Maybe I just need a long nap 😴
XD Yeah! That's it basically! It's why I stress so much over writing Vash. Man's got like, 100+ years of knowledge in there and a lot of details are not shared about Gunsmoke/No Man's Land. And them androids gotta have books and books of knowledge up in there. Those of the RK line can pre-generate outcomes and choose the best suited one, and oh boy, I'm gonna have to put way more effort and thought into their actions than any other character I think I've written so far, and I already have to do this with a few characters I'm writing fics for currently that take a lot of brain power. There's a fic I wanna write for a fandom I have not posted for yet, and I just… Worry that I won't be able to properly capture the character in question because he's just so different from me and in canon, he's kinda like Vash in that he puts up a front and I honestly… Can't tell what's an act and what's not. He's very eccentric and I… XD Fear I won't be able to capture it, or how he really feels inside. I really wanna write it though. At some point, but probably not any time soon. My thought process was basically: "Oh shit. They'd make the best yanderes. 👀"
:0 Oh cool! XD I don't either! I think the way I heard about it was I was listening to someone's book reviews on Youtube? For a while, I was super into trying to find good book series that suited my tastes, but I kinda fell into the habit of just buying books and never reading them? <.< I lost interest in a lot of hobbies I enjoyed a lot before and reading happened to be one of them. I've started to get back into it now, but… Yeah. !! I thought there were more books beyond it! I'll have to look out for them in the future, see if the store I buy books at get them eventually. Surprised me to see it on the shelf, you know? It's an older book, and quite a few go out of print after a while, leaving me looking on places like Amazon for used copies. I honestly don't remember much of the series either, I'll be honest, just that it's about a boy and a baby his family is taking care of? I just remember it was really dark and the first book left on a cliffhanger. :0 Oh wow! 21! That's amazing! I don't know either. :/ I don't think I've seen it where I live, but I'll keep an eye out!
:0 Omg! Thank you so much! I'm gonna be pulling all of these up lol.
Yeah, Spanish! :D You too?!? Awesome! X'D Oh gosh! My Spanish has gotten super rusty! I've forgotten a lot. It's only the kinds of things you'd learn taking it for two years in high school, simple stuff like hotel and restaurant questions, how to introduce yourself, say your age and the days of the week, food names, emotions, feelings, creating simple sentences,… I let myself fall off if I'm honest mostly because I really had no opportunity to actually use it in my daily life beyond actively trying and going out of my way and/or going into online Spanish spaces as I don't know many Spanish speakers around here.
:0 Oh cool! Thank you so much! I will be checking all of these out!
Hey, no worries! Put your needs first, okay? Stay hydrated, take some time to yourself to just relax and rest. Take as long as you need to respond to me, okay? Don't ever feel pressured.
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Houseguests
1/13/23
1/19/23
For 3 months I welcomed Stonehouse and Kerry James Marshall into my house. I checked out The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse (Copper Canyon Press, 2014) and Kerry James Marshall: Mastry (Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 2016) from the library. Both are books that you can flip through and read in short installments. In November I renewed Mastry. Finally the due date for both books approached and I gave them back a week ago.
I am not usually so sentimental about returning books to the library. But these two I had gotten used to. Before returning them I scanned a few pages from each, a digital memento for the box of memories and muses under my bed.
Part 1: Turning point and arrival
In 1980 Kerry James Marshall painted Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of his Former Self. He was inspired by the 1952 novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. He was 25 years old, and the painting is tiny, only 8 x 6.5 inches. This self portrait marks a turning point and an arrival for Marshall. Previously, he made mainly mixed-media and collage. From this point onward, Marshall has almost exclusively painted Black figures in everyday life, painting them with black skin, with black paint. I've heard artists say this before, that there is one piece that they make that shows them who they are, something that speaks back to the artist and illuminates a clear way forward.
A year later Marshall painted Portrait of the Artist & A Vacuum, which I am obsessed with and very much want to imitate.
Part 2: "Right now I'm writing a right-now line"
Here are some of my favorite lines from Stonehouse:
very practical… sometimes feelings linger.. i would love to take my basket across the ridge and gather vine flowers…
In the accompanying commentary, the translator Red Pine explains that in different times in Chinese history monks were given land to live off of. Stonehouse lived during the Yuan Dynasty and was temporarily head of the Monk affairs office in 1331. I don't want to glamorize this system, which Stonehouse clearly has a critique of, but throughout the whole book of poems you get a picture of a very different society from ours, one where being a monk is an established vocation with some supporting infrastructure in place. It is cool and thought provoking as we are currently pressed with the urgent work of crafting a new world.
"i've never been cheated by a hoe," good for you stonehouse… also very relatable, feeling lonely because your friends are out in the world striving for success.
this verse stuck with me and I copied it into my journal. sometimes i feel a bit desperate in terms of not wanting to make the same mistakes again and again, wanting to break habits, especially those that harm my relationships with others. I really like how Stonehouse says "when life becomes simple old habits end." it strikes me as both optimistic and pragmatic.
hold the PHONE "right now I'm writing a right-now line" is an unreal line, tattoo-worthy, sky-writing plane worthy, very good, very excellent poetry. Stonehouse gets an EGOT.
In Conclusion:
Those were 2 very good books. Furthermore, returning books means I check more out. Currently I am reading:
Cassell's Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol, and Spirit by Randy P. Connor, Mariya Sparks, David Hatfield Sparks
Dyke Strippers: Lesbian Cartoonists A to Z Edited by Roz Warren
Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King by William F. Pepper
Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice from My Bipolar Life by Ellen Forney
I am finding momentum in reading poetry, comics, and nonfiction, especially any text that is illustrated and/or that you can read non-linearly. On that tip, Act of State is the outlier, but it is so eye opening and righteous that I am locked in. I'll report back later~
1 note
·
View note
Note
I just got into the Lego Monkie Kid fandom recently, and I must ask. How do you feel about the Wukong/Macaque shipping? I've seen a lot of people say it's inappropriate because they're commonly interpreted as brothers. But others say it's okay cause it's not set in stone and lmk has changed some details on the original story, including Wukong & Mac's relationship.
I will be frank and say that Sun Wukong x Liu'er Mihou (Six-Eared Macaque) shipping grosses me the hell out, and it is one of the biggest reasons I'm hesitant in involving myself with the Lego Monkie Kid fandom, due to its domination of the fandom.
This will be a long post, so here's a bulleted TLDR:
I feel it is unfair to consider LMK independent from JTTW, given just how much LMK draws from JTTW.
I feel that the fandom's earnestness to detach LMK from JTTW does not consider how LMK is a Chinese piece of media and is thus insensitive of JTTW's place in Chinese culture.
JTTW functions as a Buddhist allegory. Within this, Six-Eared Macaque represents Sun Wukong's flaws and strife, and is literally created from him. Therefore sharing the same DNA while being two separate people, functionally siblings. Which is what has led Chinese popular culture to commonly interpret these two as such.
That being said, even if LMK makes them beyond a shadow of a doubt not siblings, I still think it's gross to ship people who were siblings in the source material. Shipping is not the only way to interact with media.
Why It's Important to Consider JTTW in Relation to LMK
While Lego Monkie Kid has changed details in the original story, I do not think it's fair to consider it as independent from Journey to the West. As a Chinese person, I feel the fandom's earnestness to separate JTTW from LMK is insensitive at best.
Journey to the West is one of the 四大名著 [Four Classical Novels of China]. Not only that, it is arguably the most accessible of the four, and as such, it occupies a very special place in Chinese culture. JTTW is a story everyone grows up with, whether it be the actual text, adaptations, or even just a bedtime story from a family member. Nearly everyone can name the main pilgrims, notable antagonists, chapter titles, and weapon names. The story is basically a backdrop to everyday life due to how much it's casually referenced, whether it be in pop culture or even food names. As such, much of the story is considered general knowledge.
Changing details and rewriting parts of JTTW for an adaptation is expected because everyone's already so intimately familiar with the original story. It doesn't make an adaptation any less of an adaptation. With the case of LMK, I don't think you can reasonably consider it independent of JTTW. Not only are the majority of the cast lifted directly from JTTW, but Qi Xiaotian makes a point to directly quote chapter titles in the literal first and second episodes. If you want to call LMK anything, it's honestly a fan continuation.
Similar to how I've spoken on my discomfort regarding people using the Arthur Waley names for the pilgrims, I'm uncomfortable with people detaching LMK from JTTW because it feels like an avoidance of the original Chinese culture and context. LMK was originally produced with a Chinese audience in mind. As such, the target audience would have gone into LMK with the cultural context JTTW holds. Detaching JTTW is insensitive to the original intent of the producers, insensitive to the fact that LMK was produced for an audience that isn't just white westerners, and insensitive to JTTW. Therefore I think it is disrespectful to consider LMK without considering JTTW.
It will take time to understand Journey to the West, especially if you're not a fan who grew up with the story. However, I believe that if you're interacting with media from a culture not your own, you hold a responsibility to take measures in order to interact with said media and its culture respectfully. If creators are going to share an important part of their culture with you, then it is common decency and courtesy to interact responsibly. It's better to expend the effort to familiarize yourself with JTTW than to act insensitively, watering down its significance for the sake of digestibility.
Sun Wukong and Six-Eared Macaque within JTTW
Before going into my JTTW-grounded reasons for being uncomfortable with Sun Wukong x Six-Eared Macaque, I'd like to make a point in bringing up how JTTW is, at its core, a very Buddhist story and that you cannot, in good faith, separate the religious aspects from this story. JTTW is often read as a Buddhist allegory, and as with any allegory, thoughtful analysis and interpretation is a must.
(Chapter 58- Photos from my copy of 西游记 and screenshots from Vol. 3 of Anthony C. Yu's translation)
Please note the title of Chapter 58 uses the wording 二心 for "two minds" and that these are the same characters for 二心, the Buddhist concept of double-mindedness referenced in the screenshots below.
(Screenshots of Anthony C. Yu's JTTW footnotes regarding the Buddhist thought behind Six-Eared Macaque, provided by my friend @uwukong -who has xyr own post with further reading on interpretation of Six-Eared Macaque functionally being Sun Wukong's brother)
It is commonly accepted that Six-Eared Macaque was literally created from Sun Wukong and is a personification of his strife, his flaws, and the things generally holding him back from the true path to enlightenment. Some adaptations go as far as to depict Sun Wukong in genuine pain when killing Six-Eared Macaque since the act of killing Six-Eared is actually hurting a part of himself.
While "sibling" may not be the completely technically correct term for their relationship, Six-Eared Macaque shares DNA with Sun Wukong, since he was created from Sun Wukong. However, as a separate person with identical genetics, Six-Eared Macaque is functionally his sibling. If you have to pull the "technically it's not incest" card, then I don't really think there's ground to stand on. The "grey area" this ship resides in is too thoroughly debunked by the text.
That being said, even if LMK decides to change Sun Wukong and Six-Eared Macaque to be explicitly, unequivocally, undoubtedly unrelated, I still find it really uncomfortable to ship characters who were brothers in the source material.
Please don't go through such lengths to ignore the original text and its significant Buddhist context just to justify a ship. There are other ways to interact with media other than shipping.
I'm a gay Chinese man and I too want to see more gay rep in Chinese media, but let me tell you, the monkey brothers are not a healthy place to look for them.
447 notes
·
View notes
Text
What Makes A Memorable Scene: Joy of Life Edition - Chen Ping Ping
Hi! So I'm a giant fan of the Joy of Life (《慶餘年》) webnovel and TV series, and while I was compiling memorable/emotional scenes to talk about on this book I just realised how very skilled the author (Mao Ni) was in crafting this sort of thing. Therefore I decided to write some posts about memorable and emotional scenes in Joy of Life exclusively!
One of my favourite characters was ✨Chen Ping Ping✨, the badass Head of the Overwatch Department! He had this mix of savageness, calmness, kindness and wisdom in him that just made him an extremely intriguing person. Since I read Joy of Life over a year ago, the scenes about him that I remember most was his downfall. And I've got two scenes I'd like to share with you, even though all parts of the novel about him were gold.
Like my last post, I've translated some excerpts because 1) it's so fun and 2) so I can share them with you!
AS USUAL, SPOILERS AHEAD!
1. The Capture of Chen Ping Ping
Volume 7, Chapter 97: 一根手指與監察院的臣服
Chen Ping Ping is arrested for treason and attempted assassination of the Emperor.
But at this time, He Zong Wei who was standing beside him suddenly said softly, “Best to kill them now, so as to shake their resolve.”
“When did it become your turn to speak about what I do?” Yan Bing Yun tossed out a sentence coldly.
Yet his words could silence He Zong Wei but not the officials of the Overwatch Department, they stood up slowly, watching Yan Bing Yun with an indifferent gaze, as if at a corpse; perhaps the next moment they would collectively move, and charge at the stretcher.
The situation was already at an extremely critical state; Yan Bing Yun squinted at his surroundings, knowing clearly that on his own, he still couldn't suppress the officials' love for Chen Ping Ping.
……
……
An aged finger was suddenly extended.
Everyone was silent, every Overwatch official cast their gaze at that aged finger, the finger that extended from beside the stretcher. The finger shifted slightly, motioning a gesture that every Overwatch official had memorised in their heart.
"Hold!" A Second Bureau official’s heart suddenly overflowed with sorrow, wetness lining the eyes; roared with grief and indignation, and knelt down heavily on both knees.
“Hold!”
“Hold!”
That aged finger seemed to have a certain magical power; it only extended and wagged lightly, subsequently, the courtyard sounded with countless voices saying the word hold; hold means silence, hold means waiting, hold means forbearance, hold means to give up against the will.
Hold means stay where you are.
All the Overwatch Department officials stayed where they were, the word hold from their mouths, two streams of tears flowing downwards, no weight of gold on their knees but with the heaviness of a mountain, striking the floor, watching the stretcher slowly pass them.
Before I say anything else can I say...OUCHH
Two main things here: helplessness and love. These two things feed onto each other, making this scene extremely emotional. This excerpt clearly shows the unbreakable bond between Chen Ping Ping and his officials, and their unbeatable loyalty and love for him. And due to that, Chen Ping Ping's order for them to stand down makes it so heartbreaking due to the dilemma in their minds: save him and break his order as a result, or obey him and watch him get captured? They choose to obey, but this makes them helpless and it becomes unbearable for them to watch him suffer. That emotion is shared by the reader due to their liking for Chen Ping Ping and after witnessing the unwavering loyalty of his officials.
Furthermore, the fact that Chen Ping Ping is thinking for his officials - telling them to stand down, so they aren't punished for treason- moves the reader as well, as this shows his care for them. This reciprocated loyalty is simply super emotional because Chen Ping Ping's goodness is revealed.
2. The Death of Chen Ping Ping
Volume 7, Chapter 102: 雨中送陳萍萍
Chen Ping Ping is executed by the brutal method of "death by a thousand cuts".
The old man in his arms was so light, holding him was like holding a cloud of wind, a cloud of wind that could dissipate anytime. Below the slightly disheveled hair, Fan Xian’s pale face twitched slightly, instinctively reaching out to hold Chen Ping Ping’s old and icy hand, holding it tightly and never letting go.
The old man had suffered unspeakable amounts of pain in this life, and was disabled for half of it, so his qi and blood had exhausted long ago; today during the death by a thousand cuts, not a lot of blood other from the pain had burst out as every slice was made, but the torture of so many cuts still caused blood water to accumulate at a location, wetting the black uniform of the Overwatch Department, making it a little sticky, a little hot, a little scalding.
In the autumn rain, Fan Xian held his frail body lightly, afraid to pain him even more; grasped his icy hand tightly, afraid he would leave just like this.
“Who could make you come back if you refused to? Why did you keep me in Dong Yi City?” Fan Xian spoke lowly and hoarsely, parched lips soaked pale by the rain, peeling slightly, pitiful to the eyes. “Who was I toiling and labouring for all these years, wasn’t it all for you elders to leave the Capital City, to enjoy the days, I was always trying hard...”
“You know I know everything.” Fan Xian lowered his head a bit more, resting it against the old man’s wrinkled face, and in the rain his body swayed, as if coaxing the old man in his arms to sleep.
The hand suddenly tightened for a moment; the old man gripped Fan Xian’s hand firmly with his, but all the energy remaining in his life couldn’t even hold a hand firmly now; it was as if he was unwilling to let something go, or fearing something, so he had to hold on to something below this sky of gale and rain, on this ground of blood and water.
🥲🥲 So 🥲🥲
To be honest, I think sorrow and loss are one of the most impactful emotions to ever write about, especially the death of a loved one. Chen Ping Ping was both loved by Fan Xian and the reader, and he was simply a wonderful father figure that everyone is sorry to see him go, especially in a way as torturous and humiliating as "death by a thousand cuts" (literally, usually more than a thousand tbh). This brings us to two more chilling (and by that I mean extremely impactful) emotions - humiliation and powerlessness. Since the reader is literally helpless against the events within the story, they can definitely empathise with the powerlessness of the characters. And humiliation - yeah you get it. It stings.
Mao Ni's (the author) language was also honed very well to portray this scene as emotive as possible. Let me list out what I found:
Its chapter title! In Chinese it's 雨中送陳萍萍, meaning something like "seeing Chen Ping Ping go in the rain" and he doesn't just go, he dies; that's just so sad dude
The emphasis of Chen Ping Ping's physical weakness especially when he's been described as being powerful and badass the entire novel, which creates a giant contrast
"Holding it tightly and never letting go" - the bond between Fan Xian and Chen Ping Ping is so touching, and that's also a main factor of the emotions in the scene
"It was as if he was unwilling to let something go, or fearing something" - even though Chen Ping Ping never defied his arrest, this shows how he actually doesn't want to die at all, making it even more agonising
AND that's all I have for now! I'll be doing a few (?) more posts on Joy of Life because I absolutely adore it, but for now, see you soon!
Bye bye!
#joy of life#cdrama#chinese drama#blog#me#translation#romance#novel#book#webnovel#bookworm#fantasy novel#bookblr#bookaholic#book review
24 notes
·
View notes
Note
I'm so confused. can jgy reincarnate or be resurrected? I know fanfic can take liberties but I've read conflicting things. plus the untamed didn't show his body or explain anything and I believe the novel says something else entirely? 😔🥺😕
So "can JGY reincarnate or be resurrected" is not a question I can really properly answer. My understanding is that the answer is yes if he's not stuck in the coffin (and a friend of mine has read a bunch of Chinese fic, albeit through Google translate, where stuff like that does in fact happen), but I'm not confident I'd know it if the answer were no! So I'm afraid I can't really help you there, I'm sorry. This is normally where I'd link you stuff from people who know more than I do but while I know I've seen stuff on the subject apparently I didn't save it, and I couldn't find anything relevant searching, either. That'll teach me not to save my links...
But I can show you what happened to JGY in MDZS, and then contrast with CQL! Let's go.
So, end of ch. 108, JGY pushes LXC away from the coffin and NMJ (not, note, out of the temple, which isn't crumbling!) and then NMJ immediately drags him into the coffin and kills him:
Yet, just as the hand was an instant from grasping Lan XiChen’s neck, Jin GuangYao used the only hand he had left to strike Lan XiChen’s chest, pushing Lan XiChen away.
He, himself, on the other hand, was dragged into the coffin by Nie MingJue, then held up like holding a puppet. The scene was beyond frightening. Jin GuangYao used his one hand to peel away at Nie MingJue’s steel-like palm. He struggled ceaselessly from the pain, hair tangled, as heavy malice shot from his eyes. He cursed with all the energy he had left, “Fuck you, Nie MingJue! You think I’m really scared of you?! I…”
With much difficulty, he coughed up some blood. Everyone present heard a crack that was abnormally clear and brutal.
A whimper of a last breath left Jin GuangYao’s throat.
There's a last short couple of sentences about JL's reaction, and then at the beginning of 109 you immediately have:
Lan XiChen staggered a few steps back from the push. He hadn’t realized what happened yet. Meanwhile, Lan WangJi struck the back of the fair-featured Guanyin statue at the center of the temple. The statue vibrated as it flew towards the coffin. Nie MingJue was still inspecting the corpse in his hand, the head had already dipped. As the heavy statue hit him, he fell right back where he’d been.
Wei WuXian leaped over and stepped onto the Guanyin’s chest. The coffin lid had broken already. They could only use the Guanyin statue as a lid to seal away Nie MingJue and his rampage. Down below, Nie MingJue struck the statue again and again in attempt to break free, while Wei WuXian also shook again and again, reeling so much he was almost thrown off.
And then LWJ lifts the coffin up, seals it with seven quqin strings and lets it fall again to the ground.
Then for the rest of chapter 109 and the beginning of 110, LXC and then WWX ask NHS some questions, after which:
After a while of silence, Wei WuXian spoke, “Let’s stop standing around for nothing. Get a few people to go find assistance. Save a few to stand by here and watch the thing. The coffin and the guqin strings won’t be able to seal ChiFeng-Zun for long.”
As though to verify his judgement, loud noises echoed within the coffin again, along with a nameless fury. Nie HuaiSang shivered. Wei WuXian glanced at him, “You see? You have to switch to a firmer coffin right now, dig a deep ditch, and bury it once more. You won’t be able to open it in at least a hundred years. If you do, it’s guaranteed it’ll continue to haunt, resulting in endless consequences…”
Right after this, the crowd comes pouring in. Some of them do indeed work on strengthening the seal; we're also told that it requires careful handling (which is why it's a few of the sect leaders who volunteer to handle it), and WWX anticipates the near future of the coffin:
Soon, this coffin would be sealed within a larger, firmer coffin. It’d be secured with seventy-two mahogany nails and buried deep underground, sealed under some mountain with stone tablets of warning.
Then we see some sect leaders carrying it outside the temple, and later LQR watches it be hauled onto a cart.
The next we hear of it is in overheard rumour in ch 113, three months later:
Someone switched the subject, “Enough, enough. Why talk about these things? Eat up, eat up No matter how powerful that Jin GuangYao used to be, right now he could be stuck in a coffin brawling with Nie MingJue.”
“I don’t think so. They loathe each other to the core, after all. I bet his bones have already been torn apart by Nie MingJue.”
“Indeed! I went to the sealing ceremony. The resentful energy in that coffin was so strong that no life grew within five hundred feet of it. I’m doubting it, really—could the coffin really seal them for a hundred years?”
Overheard rumour is not the most reliable of things, especially in MDZS—for example, I would not be surprised if it wasn't really five hundred feet. But it gives any sense, and certainly—as WWX indicated above—the coffin is /meant/ to seal them for a hundred years. (Though I have my doubts on this actually working; see here.)
Now let's look at CQL:
After JGY breaks the seal on the coffin, the blood drops onto the Tiger Seal, and resentful energy emerges and the temple starts to crumple; pretty much everyone but wangxian and xiyao flee the temple. LXC lifts his hand to push JGY away, but can't bring himself to do it; JGY asks him to stay and die with him, and he agrees. JGY then pushed him away to save his life, and wangxian catch him and LWJ brings him out of the temple to make sure he actually leaves insead of e.g. running right back in to die with JGY. WWX stays and watches a little; we see JGY turn and confront the resentful energy: "Nie Mingjue. Do you think I will be afraid of you?" The temple continues to collapse, WWX flees, and JGY runs towards the coffin.
(I'm having a hard time with the blocking on this one, I watched it a few times and it looks like they are a) immediately over the coffin when JGY bleeds on it and then immediately after they're...not? Despite not moving??? But the above is what I think is supposed to be going on.)
They're then sitting around in the courtyard outside. They seem to have been sitting around for a while even before WWX's wound heals (not a feature in MDZS, because in MDZS MXY's revenge didn't include JGY); it seems likely that JGY died before that, I think, but that's at least an end point. After this the cultivators rush into the courtyard. Now we finally get people going into the temple again, but there doesn't seem to be any sign or mention of sealing. I thought I remembered mention if a ceremony of some sort, but I can't find it in the rest of the episode and a friend doesn't remember it at all so I think it's pretty likely I was just misremembering/crossing it with MDZS.
But basically: in MDZS, they seal them together /immediately/ after JGY dies, and they proceed very quickly to a stronger, more permanent seal. In CQL, there's no sign of any of this at all! It seems quite plausible that they're not buried together, never mind sealed together. And regardless, it couldn't have happened nearly as immediately; JGY's spirit could have time to flee the coop.
It's also worth remembering that in MDZS when they seal the coffin at the end, it's to immediately deal with /fierce corpse NMJ/, who otherwise would be an extremely powerful, extraordinarily dangerous fierce corpse, made even worse—as WWX notes in ch 107—by having killed JGY.* In CQL it looks like the problem is more the Tiger Seal, I think? And it's not like they need to immediately seal it into the coffin which JGY is also in? It's not even clear that JGY's body actually ends up in the coffin, from what I can see. As far as I can tell there's not really any reason to believe they're buried together. If I had to guess (though I didn't rewatch all relevant scenes, or even all the temple scenes, and I could easily be missing something) I'd say NMJ might be going back to Honourable Burial Nie Land, and JGY's corpse....
Hmmm. That's kind of interesting, come to think of it. If it hasn't mysteriously vanished I'm not sure what would happen to it; I'm inclined to say it wouldn't be treated well except LXC is right there and he might like. Stab someone, honestly. If it /has/ mysteriously vanished—I just might change my mind about CQL LXC killing himself.** In Which a Twin Jade obsessively searches the world for their loved one because there's the possibility they might not be dead, huh.
*"After he killed Jin GuangYao, his killing intent would definitely become stronger, and he’d be more difficult to subdue!"
**I don't think this is the impression CQL as a whole is trying to give us, to be clear, it's just what I think happened.
#I am now contemplating LXC desperately searching for well-administered towns#we can't change places#a gentle warmth filling the deepest of needs#anger burned in his heart#more than one tag could contain#the best of men#long meta#sort of
40 notes
·
View notes
Note
Hey I originally followed you for YOI stuff and since that seems to be on haitus, I have seen you and a lot of people rebloing stuff about a different anime or manga (i think) with different mlm relationships? I think they're two diff shows and I've heard about mdzs before. But lately youve been reblogging stuff from a manga tagged tgcf and it looks pretty cool--so i was wondering how I could get into it and what its about? Does it have actual gay charas?
Hello! I’m sorry for the late response! This morphed from a simple answer into a beginner guide of sorts, so I hope you don’t mind! I know there’s like 500000 guides out there, but I figured I’d give it a shot too! ❤
So the stuff you’ve been seeing everywhere is indeed MDZS or related to it–including on my own blog! (I promise when YOI comes back from war, I’ll be all over that again ;o;!!!)
So these works are all by the same author, Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù (MXTX) and they are separate danmei (i.e. Chinese BL) novels, though they share a lot of similarities between them:
MDZS (Mó Dào Zǔ Shī) – Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation
TGCF (Tiān Guān Cì Fú) – Heaven Official’s Blessing
SVSSS – Scum Villian’s Self-Saving System
All of them are complete and fan translated, and I’ll answer your last question first: yes, they have actual gay characters! In the novels, the main couples end up canonically married! \o/ In some of the adaptations, their romantic relationships are also maintained (e.g. the manhuas (Chinese graphic novel)), though censorship is present.
Links will be added below this post! Grab some popcorn, this is long!
･:*:･ﾟ’★🐇MDZS🐇★･ﾟ’･:*:･
MDZS《魔道祖师》is definitely the most popular work by MXTX, as it has the most adaptations. You’ve almost certainly been seeing gifs and photosets from its donghua (Chinese animation) or live action the most. However, it has a manhua and audio drama (in both Chinese and Japanese) as well!
Synopsis: Reviled as the infamous Yiling Laozu, Wei Wuxian harnessed the forbidden dark power of demonic cultivation. Once the cultivation world decided he was too dangerous to leave alone, he was hunted down, and a terrible battle ensued that cost Wei Wuxian his life—and the lives of many others. 13 years later, he is resurrected under mysterious circumstances into the body of the pariah Mo Xuanyu. Now with this second chance at life (and while hiding his real identity), Wei Wuxian has to uncover the truth about a powerful malevolent spirit. It may just be the key to revealing a series of heinous secrets hidden from the cultivation world for years. And while the world may still hate him for crimes he didn’t commit, there’s one person who’s on his side—the illustrious Hanguang-jun, Lan Wangji—and is willing to stand by him against all odds. The two have a long and complex history, and Wei Wuxian is unsure of Lan Wangji’s motivations for helping him. But it couldn’t be more simple: respect and love.
Scene from the donghua.
Still from the live action, called “Chén Qíng Lìng”/“CQL”/”The Untamed.”
Panel from the manhua.
Art from the Chinese audio drama.
The great thing about MDZS is that you can really pick your poison in terms of what adaptation you want to get started with. If you are absolutely brand-new to the danmei scene, then starting with the donghua or manhua may be your best bet (both are ongoing). The novel of course is the most beloved, being the source, but all the adaptations have their own charms! They’re all worth checking out, and will keep you busy for quite a while.
･:*:･ﾟ’★🌸TGCF🌸★･ﾟ’･:*:･
Now, for TGCF《天官赐福》—that’s where my photosets are coming from: the ongoing manhua that started in October. There’s a donghua planned for late this year, and a live action in talks (info about that is largely unknown, but is slated for production sometime after the donghua release). TGCF actually has the same deal structure as MDZS apparently, so we’ll be getting an audio drama as well if that’s true.
Synopsis: Talented and virtuous, Crown Prince Xie Lian first ascended to the heavens when he was only 17. Once the darling of the earth and heavens for his boundless skill and purity of heart, he ended up falling from grace—not once, but twice! Subsequently, he became the laughing stock of the three realms. Spending almost 800 years roaming the earth and collecting scraps, he becomes known as the pitiful “rubbish god” and “god of misfortune.” No one could have expected Xie Lian to ascend for a third time, but fate seems to have something in store for this disgraced yet compassionate immortal. Thankfully, he is not alone, as the widely-feared ghost king, Hua Cheng, seems to have a special interest in helping him. The two of them embark on a series of adventures that unravel the secrets of their world, and of themselves.
Panel from the manhua.
Scene from the Donghua PV.
The novel for TGCF is a great place to start, especially considering how the manhua is still in it’s early stages (just starting it’s 2nd arc as of writing this post). The novel is long, incredibly well-written, and well-translated. The manhua is absolutely stunning, and follows the novel very closely thus far.
･:*:･ﾟ’★🎋SVSSS🎋★･ﾟ’･:*:･
The underrated sibling of the three, SVSSS《人渣反派自救系統 》has only the novel to interact with for right now. A donghua is planned for this year. There was a manhua, but it was cancelled due to some problems with the publisher afaik. Word on the street is that they’re searching for a new team for it, so we’ll continue to pray!!!
Synopsis: Shen Yuan is an avid reader of the web novel Proud Immortal Demon Way. The novel revolves around the protagonist Luo Binghe, a kind child who is tormented endlessly by his Shizun (teacher/mentor) Shen Qingqiu, until he turns into a powerful demon lord and exacts his violent revenge. While initially a fan of the story, Shen Yuan hates the unsatisfactory ending. Upon dying suddenly, he finds himself transmigrated into the novel, at the behest of The System—a sci-fi interface which gives him missions and directives. Unfortunately, he ends up in the place of the cruel Shen Qingqiu out of all people! This new Shen Qingqiu now has to use his knowledge of the novel to navigate around the plot, within the restrictions that The System has implemented. He has to find a way to ensure a better ending, if he wants to keep this second chance at life. His plan for doing this is to be as kind and encouraging as possible to the innocent Luo Binghe, who quickly takes a shine to this new Shen Qingqiu. Even after forced to the dark side, and despite the tension between them after this, Luo Binghe won’t let anyone else touch his beloved Shizun.
Cover of the Thai release of the novel.
SVSSS only really has the novel to interact with as of right now. There’s currently an excellent re-translation in progress by tumblr user Faelicy! If you want to get started now, however, you can read what she’s done so far and then swap over to the old translation afterward.
･:*:･ﾟ’★NOTES★･ﾟ’･:*:･
• ALL three novels are intended for an R-18+ audience ONLY. Other adaptations are safe for minors over 16 years of age.
• Please be aware that the novels may contain potentially triggering content. Feel free to ask me for content warnings if you need them.
• All three of these are totally different from one another and only share common themes typical of the wuxia/xianxia genres.
• The original Chinese raws of MDZS and SVSSS are no longer available for purchase on JJWXC (publishing site). You can find print versions on Taobao. TGCF, however, is still available!
• If you’d like more info on anything, please reach out to me! I’m happy to help.
• LINKS WILL BE ADDED BELOW THIS POST.
#mdzs#tgcf#svsss#mo dao zu shi#tian guan ci fu#grandmaster of demonic cultivation#heaven offical's blessing#scum villain's self-saving system#guide#asks#Anonymous#nyerus.txt
318 notes
·
View notes
Note
I've been reading over your synopsis on 'MDZS Sex and Consent' (which I loved, it helped explain things so much better) and was curious, in your own opinion... which translation of the ones you exemplified would you consider the better, more accurate one to read through, if indeed there are more than 1 fully translated work (i.e. something better than Exiled Rebel's translations?)
So the thing is that there is only one full English translation, which is Exiled Rebel’s. For a breakdown of what other versions are out there, see this post. There’s a few different versions of the later half of the novel, from before ExR had gotten that far, but not any of the beginning.
I’m not really able to say what versions are more accurate than others because I don’t read Chinese and therefore can’t judge. I can only say that from conversations with people who CAN, the places where ExR varies from other versions seem to be less accurate to the original. But there’s a lot of interpretation in translation, perhaps especially in Chinese translation. I also have a problem with ExR because their finished product is very poorly edited and does not read as something written by a native English speaker. It makes it jarring and sometimes a chore to read, IMO.
I found this version of chapters 79-113 very readable, though perhaps not as word-exact of a translation. (The problem with Chinese-English translations, I’m learning, is that doing a direct word-for-word translation produces something that’s very awkward and difficult to understand in English, while trying to make it sound like more natural English can lose shades of meaning conveyed in the original.)
(For example, the infamous “we are husband and wife” that leads certain Western fans to label the novel homophobic is a word-for-word translation of the Chinese. The Chinese word for married is literally “husband and wife.” There’s not another word like there is in English where we have the option of saying one or the other. So a translator has to choose, do you translate it as close as possible or give a more figurative translation that is what we would say in English (”married”). Choosing not to do the latter opens the way for people to misinterpret because it sounds so weird in English and therefore it must Mean Something.)
What I find I want more the more cnovels I read is for the translator to provide as many notes as possible about the original and any shades of meaning. The Guardian novel I’m reading is driving me nuts with absolutely no notes, leaving me to wonder “now when it says ‘saint’ what is the original word and what does it mean exactly”). Which is why I adore the translation of MDZS that @pumpkinpaix has been doing, although she’s only got two chapters out right now. Most fan translators are working as fast as possible because people are desperate to find out what happens, so they don’t spend that much time worrying over every phrase or annotating like it’s a dissertation. But, yanno, in an ideal world...
If you want to know the “best” version of the novel I’ve experienced, it’s actually the audio drama, with subtitles by @suibiansubs. No, it’s not the actual novel text, since it lacks narration, but it’s very faithful and well-acted.
95 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
beastung
Pastel Torment
its-whimsicalwonderings
Where would wanderers while away their weeks?
airunrf-blog
Si t'atreveixes a ensenyar, no deixis d'aprendre
notafancyspider
Story Teller